But it doesn’t matter. Not to anyone in these parts who’ve been paying attention for the bulk of this century during which “Syracuse” and “football” have gone together like a belch at the opera. Or have you forgotten that even the Akron Zips have fairly recently made themselves at home in the Dome, putting their feet up on the furniture and blowing their noses on the draperies?

The truth of the matter is that after too long of a wait -- nine years, anyway -- we’ve got something happening in this town that borders on an alien landing. Indeed, with the Syracuse Orange about to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers, we have . . . a Big Football Game.

No, really.

Now, with Notre Dame in 2003 and Penn State (and the accompanying world premiere of “The Express”) in 2008, we’ve had intriguing affairs, sure. And Greg Robinson’s inaugural in 2005 and Doug Marrone’s debut in 2009 do qualify as landmark ones.

But a Big Football Game? An important one? In the Dome? You’d have to look to 2001 when No. 22 SU played (and defeated) No. 25 Boston College before a gathering of 45,063 fans who’d come out for one last peek at Dwight Freeney.

And here we are, all this time later, with another one.

Syracuse-Pittsburgh isn’t Alabama-Auburn or Texas-Oklahoma or Georgia-Florida. Beyond our borders, it might not even be Harvard-Yale. But considering time and place and circumstance -- i.e., understanding that the Orange can bolt to a 5-1 overall start and to 2-0 in the Big East Conference in what history may show as SU’s season of resurrection -- it’ll do.

And, absolutely, the home team is ready to take its hacks.

“We believe in each other,” said Anthony Perkins, the fifth-year nose tackle who’d slogged through 4-8 and 2-10 and 3-9 and 4-8 before this campaign dawned. “We believe we can do anything as long as we stick together.”

Young Anthony may have spoken as a 282-pound defender, but he also seemed to have possessed a statistician’s mind because the numbers suggest that the Orange athletes on his side of the ball have been performing well enough to fancy almost anything they please.

“It’s just hard work,” Perkins explained. “Running to the ball. Everybody doing their own job. We push each other. We fight for each other. We cheer for each other. And we know that if we go out and handle our own responsibilities, we’ll be fine.”

It has made for a nice business model against Akron and Maine and Colgate and that eroded South Florida club, each of which has been defeated by this Syracuse bunch that needs to win only three of its remaining seven tilts to eclipse the Orange’s victory total in every season dating back to Freeney’s farewell tour.

But those will not be Zips across the way today. And they won’ be Black Bears or Raiders or Bulls, either. They will be Panthers, whose three losses were at Utah, at Notre Dame and at home to Miami (Fla.). And that makes this not only a Big Football Game for the Orange, but a tough one, as well.

Pittsburgh may only be 2-3 . . . as would a lot of squads, including, likely, SU if they’d played Pitt’s schedule. But it’ll come into the joint a characteristically ornery 2-3 with all of the Big East slate ahead of it. As such, you can be certain that the Panthers will have eaten their beans for the fundamental reason that this is a rather bulbous affair for them, too.

And so, we shall see. We shall see if Pitt can right itself. We shall see if the Orange is legit or a product of a roll call of friendly foes. We shall see if this town will respond to the very thing it has demanded for the bulk of this century.

Simply, this is big (in context, if nothing else). This is a Big Football Game, just like we used to have fairly regularly around here back in the glorious day. This is the kind of thing usually reserved for Tuscaloosa and South Bend, for Austin and Lincoln, for Athens and Norman.

Kind of cool, huh?

(Bud Poliquin’s columns, his “To The Point” observations and his freshly-written on-line commentaries appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. His work can also be regularly found on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. Additionally, he can be heard Mondays through Fridays (10 a.m.-12 noon), on the “Bud & the Manchild” sports-talk radio show on The Score 1260-AM. E-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)